im a lost cause lol

[jigsaw 11,809]

ive gotten myself a ferret last summer ,a jill 

,and due to work commitments i didnt have time to get her working ,but as i lost my job at x mass i thought id get some rabbiting done ,so last week i spent three days one after another checking the old places i used to hunt and to my dismay,there wasnt a rabbit on almost all of the places i knew,one spot still has a few but its overgrown with ferns and furz and not possible to work,i didnt do my homework, I have been talking to farmers and they say their land is devoid of rabbits ,..one farmer told me when the river froze over a few years back,the hares had no food in the local forestry,so they crossed the river on the ice and when the ice thawed ,they were stuck on the open land ,be jaysus says i ,how am i fixed for a run off them ....YOUR NOT . was his reply,no one is allowed at them ,due to this new disease they have ,so thats the end of that...but getting back on topic,theres a fierce scarcity of rabbits about ,so it looks like ive gotten another ''pet''...im going to keep searching though ,hopefully i will find a few pockets somewhere

[Flacko 1,732]

Shame that mate and you got pups to bring on think most lads are struggling with the rabbit decline atb Flacko 

[jigsaw 11,809]

I had a mindset of the good old days, wander out and get an easy dozen for the freezer, let's hope I can find a few spots soon

[Furrosious ferreter 499]

Ive often taken the ferrets out and put them in holes just get them out of the court... for the hell of it.

FF

[dytkos 17,534]

23 hours ago, jigsaw said:

ive gotten myself a ferret last summer ,a jill 

,and due to work commitments i didnt have time to get her working ,but as i lost my job at x mass i thought id get some rabbiting done ,so last week i spent three days one after another checking the old places i used to hunt and to my dismay,there wasnt a rabbit on almost all of the places i knew,one spot still has a few but its overgrown with ferns and furz and not possible to work,i didnt do my homework, I have been talking to farmers and they say their land is devoid of rabbits ,..one farmer told me when the river froze over a few years back,the hares had no food in the local forestry,so they crossed the river on the ice and when the ice thawed ,they were stuck on the open land ,be jaysus says i ,how am i fixed for a run off them ....YOUR NOT . was his reply,no one is allowed at them ,due to this new disease they have ,so thats the end of that...but getting back on topic,theres a fierce scarcity of rabbits about ,so it looks like ive gotten another ''pet''...im going to keep searching though ,hopefully i will find a few pockets somewhere

Get another to keep it company mate

Cheers, D.

[jigsaw 11,809]

12 hours ago, dytkos said:

Get another to keep it company mate

Cheers, D.

that jill ,believe it or not spends 2 hrs every evening in the daughters bedroom..Playing and messing about ...shes a pure pet but bred from a line of real good workers,Im hoping to get her covered by my mates snipped hob when she comes in ,and get her out of season without having a litter,i couldnt be having a second i dont think when ive no work for one ...but we will see...

[Rabid 1,936]

37 minutes ago, jigsaw said:

that jill ,believe it or not spends 2 hrs every evening in the daughters bedroom..Playing and messing about ...shes a pure pet but bred from a line of real good workers,Im hoping to get her covered by my mates snipped hob when she comes in ,and get her out of season without having a litter,i couldnt be having a second i dont think when ive no work for one ...but we will see...

I think he was more getting at keeping her company as ferrets are social animals and don’t like to be on their own really.

Its great you got the daughter involved, good to see young uns still interacting with animals than Xbox or play station, and good for the ferret as well, but what about the other 22hrs a day.

 

with regards rabbit numbers, they have been nothing like they used to be for years around here, yeah sure we have small pockets with a few on still, but when I was a lad I had days where we had over 100 with a few ferrets, it would take ten or fifteen days out to get those numbers now, and driving round the fields lamping doesn’t show any where near the amount we had, good spots that always showed a few have been devoid for many years.

[jigsaw 11,809]

Same here, I used to lamp and bag 30 plus most nights... Ferreting alone or with one mate we always stopped at 20 or so as no more were needed, on a farm clear out we hit mid 50's two days on the trot... Them days are long gone... I packed it in after the winters of 2009/10as the numbers were decimated, let's hope the situation improves in the future 

. 

[keepdiggin 9,208]

maybe thats why theres a big decline over hunting and disease. cant see the point of killing 30+ rabbits in one sitting your going to end up with no sport jmo

[jigsaw 11,809]

8 hours ago, keepdiggin said:

maybe thats why theres a big decline over hunting and disease. cant see the point of killing 30+ rabbits in one sitting your going to end up with no sport jmo

that was back before 2009,and back in the early 90's ..taking 20 from the places we went was a drop in the ocean ,and the 50 +bags were because the ditches they were in were being knocked and cleared ,we did this for 15 -20 years ,regular bags ,and never tried to take more than was necessary,but at times travelling for 2 -4 hrs for a day out you wouldnt be heading back with 6 or a dozen ,we could have gotten that close to home ...I believe its not over hunting thats done the rabbit numbers ,theyve just faded everywhere i used to travel to,hopefully things will change ,as im older now,id be happy with a few for the pot ,.

[Arry 18,536]

Seen it go full circle mate. When I was a young'un three or four us would go out ferreting and only get three or four. I saw things slowly improve over the years till we even got up into the mid forty's with averages about half that. Mixie would hit some places but would always leave a few, but now its different with RHD. Some places are devoid of rabbits. Places that had rabbits last year they're gone not a sign absolutely dead, never seen a dead one they're just all gone. They must die under ground or get picked by Foxes and Buzzards real quick. I do find rabbits but its different now its patchy, you can walk a farm go through a few fields of nothing then one field where they are thick. Or one farm has good numbers and the farm adjoining none and thats the weird thing it's none not a sign.

Cheers Arry